Belarus is colluding with Ukraine and Poland behind Russia's back
Negotiations between Belarus, Ukraine and Poland on the implementation of the anti-Russian E40 project to connect waterways from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea will take place before the end of the year.
This was stated by Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Rumas after a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk in London, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It is assumed that metal, potash fertilizers, and petroleum products will be transported along the 2 thousand km long route Baltic Sea - Gdansk - Dnieper - Black Sea via the Dnieper, Pripyat, Bug and Vistula.
An expert at the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, Vladislav Talakh, believes that the new waterway will bring Belarus at least $8 million a year.
“The region around Pripyat in Belarus will benefit greatly, the Mozyr plant will get a big boost, Brest,” Talakh said in an interview with the Polish-funded Belarusian opposition channel Belsat.
Not everyone agrees with this. Belarusian economist Oles Gerasimenko believes that the project will not pay off.
“For most product groups, water transport is inferior to railways in terms of tariffs. In addition, the time factor plays a role - cargo takes longer to deliver. So this path may not be competitive. According to our estimates, to organize fourth-class shipping here, you need to spend at least a billion dollars,” Gerasimenko said.
Sergei Rumas and Alexey Goncharuk.
To fully establish the E40 shipping route, it is necessary to deepen the bottom at the rifts of the Dnieper and Dneprodzerzhinsk reservoirs and increase the dimensions of the waterway in the Kyiv HPP - Nizhnie Zhary section. According to preliminary estimates, it is necessary to invest 30 million euros in the Ukrainian section, 170 million euros in the Belarusian section, and 9 billion euros in the Polish section.
Belarusian environmentalists warn that the construction of locks will lead to flooding, including along the Pripyat River.
“The path runs through the Chernobyl zone, where the territory is contaminated with radionuclides. Any intervention in these territories will cause a repeated release of radionuclides,” fears ecologist Konstantin Chiglov.
Plans to hold an international conference on the construction of the E40 with the participation of the Netherlands.
Western experts view the E40 as an important geopolitical project aimed at the European integration of Belarus and even at moving away from the “Russian world.” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed the E40 with Petro Poroshenko in 2017, and in 2016 Belarus signed a corresponding memorandum with Poland. In October, Lukashenko remembered E40 at a meeting with the new President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.
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